Seelie Dakota Peacock is here!

I don't have time to write the full accounting of our labor and delivery story just yet. I'm going to, but in the meantime I wanted to at least post the basic details and share a couple of pictures (if I can figure out how).

Seelie Dakota Peacock was born on 9/18/09 at 7:30pm. He was 8 pounds 3.3 ounces and 21 inches long.

I was induced on Thursday evening with Cytotec and had 3 doses of that through the night. My water was broken at about 9:30am on Friday and the pitocin was started around 10am. I labored until after 5pm w/out any pain medication. I was at 6cm when my midwife checked me, but the baby's heartrate was concerning. He was having difficutly handling the contrations. Basically the midwife said we were most likely going to have to do a C-section because he was no longer tolerating labor, but we could go ahead and get the epidural and see if we could get him to come vaginally. I had the epidural and then in short order dilated completely, however the baby's head still had not come down at all. So, I ended up with the C-section. They said when the got him out that he had been turned wrong and his head was stuck against my pelvic bone so he would not have come out regardless. It was not at all the labor and delivery that I had hoped for, but in the end I got a beautiful baby boy so it's all good.

He is so cute and sweet. He had taken to breastfeeding pretty well for the most part. The last couple of days have been a struggle though. He gets really mad and just wails instead of taking the breast into his mouth and eating. It is very frustrating. We are working through it though.

He sleeps well and for good chunks of time. He has a habit though of sleeping really good during the day and then wanting to be awake a lot at night. I'm not too concerned though since he is not even a week old yet. I expect that it will take a little bit of time to get him on a better schedule. Plus with the breastfeeding it is not like he's going to sleep through much of the night anyway.

Tony and I did write up something with more detail while we were in the hospital, but it is from his perspective and on his computer. In the next few days I'm gonna get it and tweek it to my perspective and get it posted here.

Thats it for tonight, All the details coming soon. :-)

The pictures are: Seelie just after birth in the nursery getting cleaned up; Me, Tony, and Seelie just after we got to our post partum room; Seelie bundled in a towel because my family thought his head might be cold; From left: My mom, Tony, Seelie, Me, My dad, Leila (middle sister), and Michelle (youngest sister) - our whole family; Seelie in his going home from the hospital outfit.

Getting induced tonight.

Well, I am 41 weeks today. I went in for my appointment at 11am. They checked the amniotic fluid and placenta first with an ultrasound. The tech said that the fluid was low and the placenta was not looking great either. Then I had my blood pressure checked and it was 150/80. I figured by this point that they may start talking induction. I had my non stress test and the baby seemed fine.

Then I saw the midwife. She started off saying that my blood pressure is high and I had protein in my urine which isn't good. So then she checked me. I am about 1cm dilated and thinning, but that's not a whole lot of progress. She checked with the doctor and he said that he wants me to be induced tonight. They said that since I'm at 41 weeks and the fluid is low and my blood pressure is rising it just makes the most sense.

I will go in at 8pm and they will do Cytotec every 4 hours until morning. They said that is a vaginal pill that is supposed to help my cervix open and possibly start some early labor. Jeri (midwife) said she will be there tomorrow and that if I progress well in the night and get to at least 3cm then she will probably break my water. She said that may be enough to get labor moving, but if not then they will start the pitocin and we will go from there.

I am adjusting to this, but it is Completely the opposite of what I wanted my labor and delivery to be like. I hate the fact that I have to go into the hospital before I even have the first contraction. I had REALLY hoped to labor at home for most of my labor. I feel like that would be more comfortable and help me be less likely to need an epidural. I'm still going to try not to have the epidural, but we will have to see how it goes.

I know that what matters is that the baby is healthy and that I am healthy. Ultimately, I'm excited to know that I will be seeing my baby tomorrow! I can't wait to meet him!

It may be a week or so before I come down from the clouds enough to tell all about his birth, but I do promise to do so. :-)

Due today? Yep. Having a baby today? Nope.

Well, they call it an estimated due date for a reason I guess. I wasn't expecting anything today since I really haven't been feeling any contractions or having any other signs. I went to work like normal and had an appointment with my midwife at 11:00am. I had my Non Stress Test first. It went fine. I was really relieved by that because I had been a little bit worried. I know that if they determine that the baby isn't doing that well, then they start talking induction and I would prefer to avoid that if possible. I guess I was worrying for nothing though because his little heart rate increased with every movement he made just like it is supposed to. My midwife said he "passed" within the first 10 or 15 minutes of monitoring. My blood pressure was 130/74 which is still good. I then saw the midwife. She said that my cervix is about 75% effaced which is more than last week and that it is thin and soft. She said that his head seems to be down a little lower than last week, but not fully engaged. I have not started dilating at all though. So, I go back in a week for another NST and they will check my amniotic fluid at that time also. Maybe he'll come before then.

I went back to work of course. All day people were like, "Are you still here?! When is he due?" I can't tell you how many times I said, "today's the due date, but he's not coming anytime soon" It is nice to know people care and are interested, but it kind of gets old. I'm not too impatient personally. I'm still mostly fine. I have swelling on workdays simply because I can't get my feet up high enough during enough of the day. It really isn't that big of a deal though. They hurt a little if they get too swollen, but it's minor. Other than that I'm fine. I'm not in pain or particularly uncomfortable. I am actually enjoying being at work too. I have a big project that I'm trying to finish before I go out. If it doesn't get done it will be ok, but I like having a pressing project. My day goes by WAY faster that way and I don't dwell all day on "when is the baby coming".

Well, who knows when he'll come, but I'll come give all the details once he does :-)

Still hanging in there...

I had intended to start trying to post weekly, but haven't really been doing so. Oh, well. Everything is still going fine. This baby boy is determined to stay put I think. Tony and I have been telling him all along that he has to wait at least until his due date and I think he might just obey us ;-) We were hoping not to have him over Labor Day weekend for a few reasons. My main reason is that my midwife was not on call this weekend. Tony's main reason is that he doesn't want the baby's birthday to be too close to DragonCon. LOL.

Speaking of Dragon Con... We decided that we'd better opt out of going this year. I know we both really wanted to go and there were a lot of really good guests there this year, too! There was no way to know when the baby would decide to come and I couldn't have handled all of the walking around. I teased Tony a lot that we could go as long as he'd be ready to drive me home to the hospital at any given time. He said no way! I have been having to stop myself from logging onto the website to torture myself with what I'm missing. One of my friends on Facebook is there and she posts the occasional tidbit that is torture enough.

I have been enjoying a nice 4 day weekend this weekend though. I work under the Georgia Department of Human Services and due to budget cuts we are having Furlough days all year. Friday was our first one for this fiscal year. We had them last year too but you got to choose your one day a month. This year they are closing all DHS offices one day a month. They connected the ones the could to holidays, so we had Friday before Labor Day. We'll get an extra day at Thanksgiving and December 31st to go with New Years. We already get 2 days at Christmas so I guess that's why they did New Years. Anyway, we don't get paid for furlough days, but I'm kind of used to it after last year. I was really looking forward to this being a 4 day weekend and am glad that the baby has not made his debut yet. My plan is to work from home on Tuesday which will also be nice. I won't start my leave until the baby actually comes in case he decides to be late. For my leave purposes, I'm also glad that he didn't come before this weekend. For some reason my leave balances just work out better if he waits until at least his due date.

I had an appointment with my midwife on Friday and she had scheduled an ultrasound, so Tony went with me. We were able to see the baby and everything looks fine. The Ultrasound tech put his weight at 8lbs 2oz!! I am not too worried because my understanding is those measurements are often off by a good bit, but STILL!! If he's already 8lbs and not ready to come out yet he could get scary big before he comes. My midwife did not act concerned at all though which is good. She checked me and said that my cervix is softening and thinning, but I am not dilated at all. Also the baby has not dropped yet. I am scheduled to go in on Thursday (the due date) for my next appointment. She said that I will have a Non-Stress Test at that time assuming that he has not come yet. She said that at this point they don't have consistent growth so they use the NST to determine that they are getting enough oxygen, etc. She said if I go for another week after that then at the next appointment I would probably have an NST and an ultrasound, just because the further along you get the more they like to monitor things. That makes sense to me. My weight at my 38 week appointment had gone up 5 pounds (I went in the afternoon instead of morning though, which I think matters). At this appointment I was down 2 pounds from that weight. I was happy with that. I think that proves my point that the 5 pound jump had to do w/ going at a different time of day. I am really hoping NOT to hit the 40 pound mark!! I am currently at 36 pounds, so I might be able to stay under 40 total if he doesn't stay for a full 2 weeks over. My blood pressure was 130/60.

My only two issues that I've had have been sleep and swelling. I basically sleep poorly and swell all during the work week. I've found that weekends are different though. I sleep better on the weekends for some reason. I have been swelling less on weekends mostly because Tony has been insisting that I stay in the recliner or on the couch w/ my feet up for almost the entire weekend. I'm not really quite sure what the deal is with the sleep though. During the week I was waking up every 1.5 hours to roll over and/or go to the bathroom (usually I'd do both). Then this past week I had a few days where I woke up every HOUR to go to the restroom and roll over. Last weekend though I had one night where I sleep in like 4 hour increments. And since Thursday night I have slept WONDERFULLY all 3 nights of this weekend so far! I sleep for longer chunks of time and don't feel the urge to go to the bathroom EVERY time I wake up to turn over. It also helps a little that I get to sleep for longer if I want to since I don't have to get up for work, but even without that I'm just having more sound sleep. One of my co-workers had said on Thursday that maybe it is related to knowing you have to get up for work in the morning and feeling like it is that time already. I didn't think so at the time, but now I sort of do think she could be right at least to some degree. Also, during the week I tend to ask myself if I'm in labor every time I wake up in the night, whereas for some reason I do that less on the weekend. I think that may have to do with the fact that during the week Tony goes to work 45 minutes away and if I've started labor in the night I don't really want him taking off to work. I don't know though. I have been not worrying as much about my swelling since last weekend. After I was able to really keep the swelling down by keeping my feet up, I determined that it is not a big medical issue. I figure it is just gravity and part of normal pregnancy. At work I try to keep my feet up, but it is hard for several reasons. One is that the few places I can put my feet to get them up can get very uncomfortable very quickly. Then there is the fact that I'm in a cubicle and people like to walk by and ask me if I'm having a comfortable and/or relaxing day. That really makes me ill when they make comments. I'm like look at my HUGE feet and tell me if I look comfortable?! They can get pretty big at times, too! For the most part they don't really hurt, but when they get particularly big it feels really tight and they hurt a little bit. That is when I put them up on top of my desk, which usually gets the most comments. lol.

We got the extra dresser for the closet and I decided to put all of the clothes in it. I decided that it makes more sense for all of the clothes to be in the same place. I have blankets in the changing table/dresser in the side with the shelves. The drawers will hold diapers, bibs, receiving blankets, burp cloths, and extra sheets and waterproof pads. Yes, we are using cloth diapers. I'm actually very excited about them, too. I will be home with the baby for the first 3 months during which time I plan to use cloth exclusively (after the first couple of days - they say that first poop is too tar-like for the cloth). After that Tony may be able to be home for another month, possibly, so that would be another month of cloth. Then the baby will have to go to daycare. I plan to attempt to get them to do the cloth diapers for me, but I am not holding my breath. If they won't then I will do disposables for daycare and continue with the cloth for nights and weekends. Most of the people I know think I'm crazy, but it just makes sense to me. It is cheaper and better for the environment. Also there will be a lot less chemicals coming in contact w/ the baby's bum. I've read that cloth diapered babies have less diaper rash AND potty train quicker. It helps a lot that Tony is completely on board with me. He helps me a lot around the house already and I have no doubt that he will help in anyway that he can with all of the baby stuff including diaper laundry. We also are both very stubborn people. We've both had people making bets that we won't stick with the cloth diapers. Both of us have said that we HAVE to stick with them now since people don't think we will. LOL. ;-) Plus my sister has put a lot of work into those diapers so I have to put them to good use. My parents used cloth for us and have been supportive also. They were lucky enough to have had a diaper service at that time though, so it will be a tad different for us than it was for them. I also have one co-worker who basically has kids my age and she said she did cloth and it isn't that big of a deal. It is nice to have a couple of people who don't think I've completely lost it at least. :o)

I think tomorrow I will probably be doing about the same thing that I did today... laying on the couch, reading, and watching tv. It was a nice day and I look forward to another one like it. :o) I know that I would get tired of it quickly, but there are times when I sort of wish that I could just start my maternity leave now and not go back to work. I know that it is better for me to go back to work though because it keeps me busy and I'm not just sitting at home waiting to go into labor all day. I know that if I were to stay home all week that would eventually be all I thought about.

I have the baby's room pretty much ready. I still have a few things to find places for, but in general things are ready. I packed baby's hospital bag today, but I still haven't packed mine yet. I actually don't think that I will pack mine really until I'm in labor. I feel like most of what I would want to take with me is last minute stuff. I am not planning to run out of the door at the first sign of a contraction anyway, so I figure I should have time to pack it once labor starts. If for some reason I don't have time, then my mom or sister can always come collect a few things for me.

So, I think I'm ready for this little man to make his appearance whenever he gets ready. It's ok if he wants to stay put for a few more days. I don't want him to stay put for too much longer than his due date though. Mostly I don't want to end up in a situation where they want to induce labor. I REALLY want him to come on his own! I am VERY determined not to have an epidural and I know that inductions often lead to way more intense contractions. I have faith in my body though and I think it is all gonna come together when the time is right.

Well, I should probably start winding down for bed now. Maybe next time I write it will be to say what a beautiful baby I have ;-)